It is well known that growing plants tend to seek and grow in the general direction of a light source such as sunlight. This tendency can result in unattractive, asymmetrical plants and is a particular problem with house plants which tend to grow laterally toward the windows of a room. To solve this problem, it has been common in the past for plants to be manually rotated and moved occasionally such that each side of the plant receives substantially even exposure to sunlight causing the plant to grow symmetrically. This manual method works well when practiced methodically but is subject to forgetfulness and cannot be practiced at all during vacations or other times when a house is unattended.
Devices for automatically rotating plants to insure even exposure have been developed with some examples being illustrated in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,360,885; 4,026,067; and 4,051,627. While the devices of these patents solve some of the above referenced problems, many problems still remain unaddressed. In particular, these devices are in general adapted to support and rotate only a single potted plant such that a complete independently powered unit must be purchased for each plant to be tended. Further, water and dirt from plants supported on these devices tends to collect beneath their rotating platters necessitating periodic disassembly for cleaning and contributing to deterioration of working parts. Finally, these devices only provide rotational movement of plants supported thereon. In many instances, such as in store front windows, lateral movement of plants across a support surface for display may also be desired.
It is thus seen that a need exist for a device adapted to rotate potted plants for even exposure to sunlight which resists accumulation of dirt within the device, is adapted to rotate more than one plant and can be configured to move plants laterally across a support surface for display. It is to the provision of such a device that the present invention is primarily directed.